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Chapter 1: What were the highlights of the Red Sox Opening Day win?
Sandy Hart, Nick Fitzy, Stevens. And this is going to be our first. In a season-long weekly chat series with Rob Bradford, our weekly conversation with Rob Bradford is presented by McFarlane Energy, the region's most dependable provider of home heating oil, including bioheat, as well as expert HVAC services at McFarlaneEnergy.com. We might as well just call him Mr. McFarlane.
McFarlane, everybody. McFarlane to you all.
Well done. It's a verb. It's a name. It's really everything.
First of all, wow, what an introduction. It makes me – I don't have a spring in the step until about a minute ago. Thank you for giving my spring in the step. Now I'm shouting McFarland to the Cincinnati airport. Let's go.
Chapter 2: How did the starting pitching perform in the game?
It's so good to talk to you. Let's go. McFarland baseball.
And the best thing is, happy McFarland to you as well, Brad, for the fun fact about the Cincinnati airport, it's in Kentucky.
Oh, now you tell me.
You're in the wrong place.
You're going to miss your flight. Cincinnati, by the way, I was saying this, underrated, right? Underrated. I totally underrated it up until I left the ballpark last night, and there was about a line of 30 police people. I don't know what was going on. The bars and restaurants were shut down. Not good.
Not the way that they want to celebrate the first game of the year, but I guess it's a work in progress. So, hey, I'm good.
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Chapter 3: What role did the bullpen play in the Red Sox victory?
So speaking of that game, 3-0 win for the Red Sox. Garrett Crochet was awesome. The bullpen was awesome. The young guns were awesome. What was your favorite part?
Oh, man. You know, I think that – I was just talking with someone about, like, what is the biggest takeaway from this one? Roman's easy, right? But Roman was the guy. I said this yesterday. Roman, it's not – it doesn't take – it's science. Like, it's science if this kid's going to be good. You're around him enough. You see him play enough. He hits lefties.
Chapter 4: Which players stood out during the Opening Day match?
He's got a great demeanor. He's a mature – about a mature 21-year-old that you're going to find. All of that stuff, he's going to be good. I don't think there's any doubt about it. But Crochet, there was a smidgen of doubt because of his sad trombone of the spring training. But then he comes out, and sure enough, third deck arrives.
He's blowing 98 and yelling at coming off the mound and doing all the Crochet stuff we saw from last year. So that's out the window is two. And then, and the little things, I think Jaron Duran getting a hit off a lefty late in the game when they brought him in, that was key.
Marcelo Meyer, you know, what he did, you know, in both, you know, in terms of celebration and actually getting on base to do the celebration, like all of that. It's, I think that if you wanted to go into from spring training to a regular season, there was some, some,
hints of doubt with some things but i think most of the things at least for this one game were answered uh first off brad foe i just want to take something that we shared via text yesterday to the public in our appreciation of pat mcafee wearing a baseball isn't boring t-shirt yesterday on the program spreading the gospel and we welcome him to the congregation yeah you know some would look at it as a two-hour advertisement for baseball is boring
I just look at this as just another member of the community, Fitzy. Welcome in, Pat McAfee. Yeah, just welcome in.
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Chapter 5: What are the implications of this game for the Red Sox season?
Now, about yesterday's game. I said at the top of the show, and it's what I felt yesterday, immediately after the game, basically Red Sox Nation and the whole of MLB and baseball fans yesterday was treated to what I'm calling a recipe or a blueprint win for the 2026 Red Sox. Great starting pitching, good bullpen, and timely hitting and just enough defense.
Like, you know, Breslow and Cora couldn't have drawn it up anymore 2026. You know what I mean?
Yeah, your senses are keen, my friend. I mean, I think that's exactly what they actually said. This is how we're going to play, and this is what is going to happen. Now I would say this. I don't think you can do that for an entire year. You do need home runs. You do need some games where you score a bunch of runs because it puts a lot of pressure on the pitching.
I mean, Coach Crochet got out of that bases loaded jam. Good for him. But he had to get out of it.
Chapter 6: How does Garrett Crochet's performance impact the team?
And then the relievers came in, and they did their thing. By the way, I said Garrett Whitlock. I added this up. Garrett Whitlock should not feel down about that WBC thing.
Because as I tweeted out, the previous appearance, he did something that nobody in the history of baseball has done, which is get out in order with two strikeouts and a grounder back to the pitcher, $1.6 billion worth of hitters. So if that doesn't give you confidence heading into the regular season, I don't know what will. He showed that he was good once again. Chapman did his thing.
Slayton was good. But to answer your question, Fitzy, this is how they're going to play. But I do think that you ultimately do need the guys to say to Zip's projection, screw you, we're going to hit home runs.
Rob, if I were cynical, I would look at this box score and say the new guys didn't get hits because Contreras, Durbin, IKF went 0-4. And I want to spin that into a question about Marcelo Meyer. Two runs scored, two hits.
Chapter 7: What are the expectations for Marcelo Meyer moving forward?
A couple hip thrusts at second base. When do we start talking about should he just play every day? I know Cora has said they're going to protect him, quote unquote, but those of us that hope he's a superstar, don't you want to just start the process at some point of him, sure, having bad swings, bad at-bats, but putting money in the bank for down the road?
Yeah, I mean, I think that what he did, and Roman Anthony said it after the game, that they saw that he was doing really well. They saw that his swing was different. They saw his timing was really coming along. But everybody else was, as he said, sleeping on him. And sure enough, boom, that looks like the guy that you're talking about.
Now, the next step, though, and Cora isn't one to just say, go get him, lefty on lefty, unless you're Roman Anthony. The next step is actually to play and perform against lefties. And I think that he still has to do that. And until he does it, you are going to see Izzy and you are going to see a Monasterio.
You are going to see those guys because I don't think Cora is at the point with Meyer right now where he's going to take the governor off. I think that he still is going to protect this guy, give him some confidence. And yesterday was a perfect example of that.
Chapter 8: Are the Red Sox prioritizing winning or business strategies?
Brad Fo, I know it's early. My God, it's not even April yet, but is there any reason for me to, I don't know, think that maybe Ranger Suarez is going to let us down this year or not be able to live up to that enormous contract he signed?
Yeah, I mean, Fitzy, I get it. I totally get it. And you come away from spring training every year. You try to put too much into it. And sometimes you should put too much into it. Sometimes you're like, I'm going to date myself. But I remember Keith Volk. Keith Volk's first year with the Red Sox. This is really dating myself. What is that, like over 20 years now?
But he signed that free agent deal. He could not get anyone out. Anyone out in spring training. It was a disaster. Then you get the third deck. You get the big lights. And then he performed. I don't know. I just want to see Ranger Suarez pitch. He does get a little bit of the benefit of the doubt because he's a major league pitcher who's pitching big major league games.
And the good thing for them is that they do have some luxury in terms of these other guys. But I can't go down that road quite yet. But I certainly think this, Fitzy. I think that I don't know if we've ever had in the history of Boston sports a more unassuming – Les talked about a $130 million contract in Regis Juarez.
Rob Bradford here on WEI Afternoons. Mr. Baseball isn't boring coming off Pat McAfee taking it to the masses yesterday. Rob, two questions here on Garrett Crochet. First, did he say what the Internet says he said after that strikeout? Are the lip readers right?
I mean, I'm not a lip reader, but I assume there's a lot of people out there. This is one of the good things about social media. They're here to educate, offer insight, and inform, and I think that that's exactly what they did there. I know that my business partner and co-author, He said something very, very similar, so it's not like it hasn't been done. Okay. Love it.
Love it. What I'm interested in, though, with Crochet is this splitter thing that he worked on and now apparently has already scrapped. What are your thoughts on that, investing in it and then scrapping it so soon?
Yeah, I think this is another example of spring training where these guys work on stuff, they work on stuff, they work on the stuff, and then they're like, yeah, I'm good. I'm good with that. And I think that, you know, I love that quote from Koschei, just the matter of fact, the self-deprecating, hey, you know what?
I was really good in spring training and lousing in the opener, and now maybe I'll be bad in spring training and good in the opener. And I think that he's got a great perspective of things. And I also think he has a really good idea who he is. Like they can, and you guys know this, like baseball is tinkering like all the time. They're always tinkering. They're always finding stuff.
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